The International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC) is a 7,200 km multi-modal transportation network that uses ship, rail, and road routes to move freight between India, Iran, Russia, Central Asia, and Europe. It is a concept and a project initiated to promote transportation cooperation and boost trade among member states.
The INSTC originated with an agreement signed in St. Petersburg on September 12, 2000, by the founding members: India, Iran, and Russia. The primary problem it was designed to solve was the high cost and long transit time of the traditional route via the Suez Canal. A study found the INSTC could be 30% cheaper and 40% shorter than the traditional route, with an ideal transit time of about 18 days from the Baltic Sea to India.
The mechanism of the INSTC involves three main branches: the Western Route (via Iran and Azerbaijan), the Eastern Route (via Iran, Turkmenistan, and Kazakhstan), and the Trans-Caspian Route (using sea-rail hybrid across the Caspian Sea). The corridor connects major cities and ports like Mumbai (India), Bandar Abbas and Chabahar (Iran), Baku (Azerbaijan), and Moscow and St. Petersburg (Russia).
The INSTC is closely connected to the Ashgabat Agreement, a multimodal transport agreement signed by India in 2018 to facilitate the transportation of goods between Central Asia and the Persian Gulf. India's investment in Iran's Chabahar Port is a key component, intended to bolster the corridor and provide India with access to Central Asia, bypassing Pakistan.
The INSTC has seen significant recent changes, largely driven by geopolitical shifts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, which prompted Russia to accelerate the corridor's development to reorient trade toward Asia and circumvent Western sanctions. In 2024, Russia, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, and Iran signed an “Eastern Corridor Roadmap” to develop that route. The corridor is expanding, with cargo volumes reaching 26.9 million tons in 2024, a 19% increase from the previous year. The critical missing link, the Rasht–Astara railway in Iran, remains under construction as of late 2025.